1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to municipal sewage treatment facilities and methods, and particularly to a sewage plant adapted for short-term service at temporary locations to mitigate interim short-falls of sewage treatment capacity. More particularly, this invention relates to a portable, unitary, non-biological sewage treatment system adapted to be moved without disassembly on national and state highways between temporary sites, and the apparatus and methods employed to make such sewage treatment facilities portable.
2. Description of Related Art
The majority of wastewater treatment plants in use today for treatment of municipal sewage are of the biological type. It is well known that the liquid waste from such plants is not suitable for re-use without advanced or tertiary treatment which requires additional equipment and land space. The solid waste also requires considerable handling and space, either for disposal or processing for re-use as fertilizer or fuel. Land requirements and equipment size for such plants thus are quite large, resulting in significant capital investment when building or expanding this type of plant. A need exists for a compact, unitary, portable wastewater treatment plant that does not require extensive pretreatment or materials handling space.
It is widely known that sulfur dioxide is an effective and rapid disinfecting agent for both liquids and solids, and it is an economically acceptable choice. Previous designs for chemical disinfection and dewatering systems have failed to gain wide acceptance, mostly due to insufficient reduction in equipment size, or limitations imposed by systems designed for batch operation. There exists a need for a Wastewater Treatment System that will continuously disinfect both the liquid and the solids in a rapid manner in limited space.
Temporary construction sites can develop very large camps occupied by workers and sometimes their families for months and even years at a time. Often located in remote, rural settings or near small, existing settlements, sewage treatment requirements of such camps can easily overwhelm local treatment capacity, if it exists at all. This could require such municipalities to add far more capacity than they'll need once the camp is disbanded after construction. A need exists for temporary wastewater treatment facilities that easily can be set up for interim capacity increases and efficiently and quickly removed and relocated when no longer needed. Further, a need exists for a sewage treatment plant that can be moved on national and local roadways from one such site to the other with little or no disassembly.